West Virginia Public Broadcasting - After federal and state level changes to Medicaid, many Americans will be left without health insurance coverage by the end of the year. Read the full article. To remedy the financial strain on West Virginia families, lawmakers are considering a bill to create a high-quality, low-cost health insurance plan for…
Health
With a relatively short 60-day legislative session, the bills that get considered—and the ones that don’t—tell us a lot about our lawmakers’ priorities. Now that we are exactly halfway through the 2023 session, the WVCBP team lends insight into what we’ve seen prioritized so far and what we would like to see prioritized during the…
WTRF - Poor oral health is widespread in West Virginia, but Wheeling Health Right was recognized nationally for their fully integrated medical and dental free clinic. Read the full article. It significantly affects almost all aspects of life including the workforce, emergency room utilization, and chronic health conditions. According to a 2014 report from the…
Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia Daily News - As West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice stood in the House of Delegates chamber last week delivering the annual State of the State address, he jumped from topic to topic, highlighting his greatest hits. When he came to the state’s abortion ban, the assembled lawmakers rose in a…
Mountain State Spotlight, Beckley Register-Herald, Times West Virginian - Earlier this month, when lawmakers were still preparing to come to Charleston for the legislative session, WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital dropped a bombshell: it would stop taking the state’s public employees’ health insurance. Almost immediately, lawmakers promised action and on the first day of the session, state…
WTRF - As of July 1, state employees may no longer have their medical care covered at WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital. Read the full article. Jim Kaufman, President and CEO of the West Virginia Hospitals Association, made that announcement on MetroNews TalkLine on Thursday. It comes after years of issues funding West Virginia Public Employees…
West Virginia's Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) provides health care coverage to state and local government employees and their families, with total enrollment of about 75,000 active members. Providing adequate funding for PEIA has been an ongoing issue for the state, one that has only worsened in recent years. After four years of prioritizing flat…
Huntington Herald-Dispatch, Coal Valley News - With federal designations regarding COVID-19 set to lift next year, about 42,000 children in West Virginia are at risk of losing insurance coverage. Read the full article. In a presentation during an interim session of the West Virginia Legislature’s Committee on Children and Families last week, lawmakers heard research…
WSAZ - The COVID-19 pandemic forced government at all levels to take unprecedented action, and now as the pandemic wanes, officials have to consider ways to unwind those emergency actions. Read the full article. The West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy says one such move could leave children without health insurance whenever President Biden…
In West Virginia, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are critical health programs for low- and moderate-income families and kids. Before the pandemic, about four in nine children were covered through these programs, and this robust enrollment contributes to West Virginia covering 97 percent of kids with health coverage. Since the start of…